UX Quotes

Usability Quotes

“There is a common misconception that usability equals common sense, but actually usability is more than common sense. Although the definition of usability is closely related to logical relevance and common sense, it is very unwise just to rely on common sense in ensuring the usability of a product. Using common sense is not only unwise but sometimes also dangerously misleading.” – Adi B. Tedjasaputra (source)

“Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology. There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product.” – Alan Cooper (source)

“Whatever your team might call it-usability testing, design testing, getting feedback-the most effective input for informed design decisions is data about the behavior and performance of people using a design to reach their own goals.” – Dana Chisnell (source)

“Design is less and less about solving problems, testing less and less about eliminating frustration. It’s all becoming more and more about making a good experience for users… Now it’s not good enough to just be usable. The design has to fit into peoples’ lives. It actually has to make people happy, and anticipate their needs.” – Dana Chisnell (source)

“The argument is not between adding features and simplicity, between adding capability and usability. The real issue is about design: designing things that have the power required for the job while maintaining understandability, the feeling of control, and the pleasure of accomplishment.” – Don Norman (source)

“It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.” – Don Norman (source)

“A good user experience designer needs to be able to see both the forest and the trees. That means user experience has implications that go far beyond usability, visual design, and physical affordances. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions.” – Eric Reiss (source)

“While great usability is a baseline requirement, there is far more involved in engaging customers on a Web site than simply making sure they can find specific content and perform particular transactions. Today’s mandate is to move beyond traditional usability. Instead of designing only for what visitors can do on a site, superior Web design is now responsible for determining what customers will do.” – Eric Schaffer (source)

“Old-school usability espouses the idea that user activities are onerous tasks that they want to get out of the way as soon as possible. While this is true in some cases, usability is now widely understood to be more of a hygiene factor–something that can cause dissatisfaction if missing, but its presence cannot take you beyond lack of dissatisfaction.” – Harry Brignull (source)

“On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?” – Jakob Nielsen (source)

“While I acknowledge that there is a need for art, fun, and a general good time on the web, I believe that the main goal of most web projects should be to make it easy for customers to perform useful tasks.” – Jakob Nielsen (source)

“Usability is like love. You have to care, you have to listen, and you have to be willing to change. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s where growth and forgiveness come in.” – Jeffrey Zeldman (source)

“When software is hard to use, don’t make excuses for it. Improve it. When a user makes a mistake, don’t blame the user. Ask how the software misled them. Then fix it. The user’s time is more valuable than ours. Respect it. Good UI design is humble.” – Jono DiCarlo (source)

“It’s standard practice to design with our user’s goals in mind. Too often, though, we tend to focus only on the immediate goals… Although we may produce usable and successful designs, we have ignored the user’s larger context. They may be bored, tired, at work, grinding away at a long term deliverable. They may be entering countless rows of data into a spreadsheet. People love to have fun. Without sacrificing usability, let’s bring a little fun into our designs.” – Loren Baxter (source)

“Design has been viewed as being aesthetic. Design equals How Something Looks. You see this attitude to design in every part of society–clothing design to interior design, less so in product design, and yes, in web design…. I think design covers so much more than the aesthetic. Design is fundamentally more. Design is usability. It is Information Architecture. It is Accessibility. This is all design.” – Mark Boulton (source)

“The customers, the visitors, the patients, the readers, the guests, whatever you call them – their experience is what determines the company’s success or failure. So focus first on the overall experience. It’s strategic, not tactical. It’s about the people, not the tool. Focusing on the larger picture first will set a better context in which to work – later – on usability tactics.” – Mark Hurst (source)

“If you want to reach the greatest number of users possible, it’s best to write clearly and simply and design your interfaces to be consistent from page to page. For some people, simple usability advice like this is an absolute accessibility need… And anyway, people of all abilities fail tasks that are confusing. Why should we all suffer an interface that proves itself to be unusable?” – Matt May (source)

“Usability testing should not be a stage gate in your design and development process. It should be a tool with which to gather helpful, diagnostic information from your target users. It’s a means of understanding the goodness of a design’s fit to the intended users’ problems.” – Paul J. Sherman (source)

“Many of the most compelling usability test insights come not from the elements that are evaluated, but rather those not evaluated… The unintended conclusions-the peripheral insights-are often what feed a designer’s instincts most.” – Robert Hoekman Jr. (source)

“Usability really just means making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing – whether it’s a web site, remote control, or revolving door – for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated.” – Steve Krug (source)